TALLADEGA, Ala. – Whether he intended for it to happen or not, Josh Williams got shuffled out of the lead draft from third during the final laps of Saturday’s MoneyLion 300 at Talladega Superspeedway.
He’ll never admit which of the two it was, but that split-second decision for the 25-year-old Florida driver paid off with his first top-10 finish in NASCAR Xfinity Series competition at the end of the day.
Williams, carrying the colors of Florida-based Startron aboard his No. 36 DGM Racing Chevrolet, raced his way to eighth place at the 2.66-mile Alabama oval after running as high as third with six laps to go.
However, his strong finish was almost thwarted a lap later, as Williams had to duck from the top lane all the way down to the yellow line to avoid a seven-car melee on the backstretch that collected his teammate, Alex Labbe, among others in its wake.
Williams narrowly snuck through, though, and soldiered home following a green-white-checkered finish.
“It looked like it was cool when you see how it played out, but that all came down to trying to make something happen, man,” explained Williams after the race. “It’s so tough when everybody is on top of one another … so you have to try and get all you can get, especially late in the race. Mario (Gosselin, crew chief) gave us a really good piece and thankfully, we were able to show out well with it.
“After (the crash) happened I was like, ‘Oh, well, that was a good idea,’” Williams added. “Sometimes you flip a coin and it lands on heads, and others it lands on tails. Luckily we came out on the good end.”
After what amounted to an overly-tame season opener at Daytona Int’l Speedway in February, Saturday’s race was what fans are more accustomed to seeing in restrictor-plate runs: controlled chaos.
“It was definitely wild all day,” Williams noted. “There was one point where I was dead sideways on the frontstretch and others where we were all three-wide. It was a blast. Any time you come to these superspeedways and can race like that, you know it’s gonna be a treat and you’re gonna have fun.”
Williams’ eighth-place finish was his highest-ever in Xfinity Series competition, as well as his best finish in any division since a top-five run at Talladega one year ago in the ARCA Menards Series.
That gave him plenty of reason to smile afterward, as well as fueled his fire to improve even more.
“The good news is that we finally got a top 10 out of this, and that’s a testament to Mario and this team and Startron and everyone that went in to making this weekend possible,” Williams said. “The better news is that we’ve got some road courses and another superspeedway left this season to try and get a few more of them and maybe beat that career-best again this year.”
Much like Saturday runner-up Gray Gaulding, Williams isn’t necessarily a household name in the Xfinity Series as of yet. He’s trying to change that, however, in any way he can.
“I hand people hero cards and they say, ‘Who are you?’ I tell them, ‘Just pay attention and you’ll figure it out one day,’” he said. “We just have to keep pressing on and keep working hard. There aren’t many drivers left out there like me, so I’m going to keep the mold I’ve built and keep doing what I do.”
After a sponsor default at the beginning of the season put Williams and his team in rough straights, Talladega was a welcomed breath of fresh air for the journeyman racer and helped stabilize his year.
Williams leaves Talladega 18th in driver points, up three spots from where he entered the weekend.
“This kind of a finish couldn’t have come at a better time for us,” Williams noted. “Hopefully this will help us and we can get more sponsors who’ll take notice of our performance and the places we can run well. Losing a sponsor at the beginning of the season hurt us pretty bad. It set us back a lot.
“Being at this point now after being set back so far shows how good our team is, and I’m proud of that.”